Crucial funding for The SHIFT Project

A $50,000 grant from the Westpac Foundation will help remove employment barriers for women experiencing disadvantage, with Byron Bay-based non-profit The SHIFT Project using the funds to support its programs.

The funding will benefit operational efficiency, equipment, marketing, administration, business development, and upscaling of the local Indigenous art textile program.

The SHIFT Project Co-founder and Managing Director Anne Goslett said the organisation was grateful to the Westpac Foundation.

“This grant will enable us to move towards our goal of financial sustainability as an independent program in our local community,” Goslett said.

“We will launch a marketing strategy for our Ngali Design Initiative and stabilise our social enterprise, linen SHIFT – laundry with a conscience.

“This shift in focus supports us to diversify our income streams whilst supporting women and children to stabilise.”

An educational transition program established in 2015 for women who are homeless or at risk of homelessness to reintegrate into the community towards self-worth and self-sufficiency, SHIFT meets a crucial unmet need.

Built on the premise that employment and financial wellbeing are critical to moving permanently out of disadvantage and connecting back into the community, it disrupts the cycle of women’s homelessness with a strategic range of services.

Westpac Foundation CEO Amy Lyden said 35 per cent of Inclusive Employment and Thrive Community Grant recipients were from rural or regional areas.

“Investing in the regions has always been incredibly important to us,” Lyden said.

“We continue to see disproportionate rates of unemployment outside of major cities, and people facing disadvantage are even more likely to be represented in this statistic.

“We hope to form enduring relationships with social enterprises in rural areas to bridge the gap.”